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This may be a bit off-topic, but not the disposal of dioxin-contaminated industrial wastes in an ordinary garbage dump..... Green Delaware Alert 507 (please post/forward) "We can't shut down the sources of dioxin without finding the courage to change the way government works. ...We have to explore how people became powerless as the corporations became powerful. We have to discuss why our government protects the right to pollute more than it protects our health. We have to figure out how to speak honestly and act collectively to rebuild our democracy." --Lois Maric Gibbs. April, 1995 (preface to "Dying from Dioxin") August 8, 2006 After years of denial by DuPont, and DuPont's servants in the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), DuPont admitted today to finding the most toxic type of dioxin, 2,3,7,8-TCDD in testing at the Edge Moor plant on the Delaware River in Delaware. Dioxins and "dioxin-like compounds" are a family of similar chemicals differing in toxicity. They fall into the category of "persistent bioaccumulative toxins." Delaware's DNREC has stated: "These chemicals are of particular concern because they are not only toxic, but because they remain in the environment for long periods of time, are not readily destroyed, and build up and accumulate in body tissues." They accumulate, for example, in the breast milk of human females. Recent reports by the World Health Organization and the US National Academies have confirmed the harmful, cancer-causing nature of dioxin. for some background see: http://greendel.org/item.xhtml?name=ALERT_0502 . Detection of 2,3,7,8-TCDD at Edge Moor is hardly a surprise, because DuPont's Edge Moor plant is the largest source of dioxin in the United States, competing for that honor only with another DuPont plant in DeLisle, Mississippi. Over the past five years, DuPont has reported an annual average of 112 pounds of dioxin to the Toxics Release Inventory program. This is over 500 thousand times the minimum reportable quantity and 40 percent of all the dioxin reported in the entire US during this period. But: There are 75 dioxins, 135 furans, and 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). (In chemical lingo, "congeners") Of these, 7 dioxins, 10 furans, and 11 PCBs have been considered to have "dioxin like toxicity," but the exact toxicity is uncertain and some have recently been described in government reports as up to ten times more toxic that previously assumed. The TRI reporting includes only the 17 most toxic dioxins and furans. Independent testing at the DeLisle plant found "2,3,7,8-" in May of 2005. About 2000 people are sueing DuPont in Mississippi, claiming damage to their health from dioxin and other harmful chemicals from the DeLisle plant. In the first case to go to trial, a 14.5 million dollar judgement resulted against DuPont. Former DuPont employee Glen Evers told Green Delaware that the admissions from Edge Moor are "the atomic bomb" of revelations. DuPont, in a letter to employees, said: " ... 2,3,7,8-TCDD was detected in a sample collected from the ore roaster cyclone at 1.09 parts per trillion and a separate sample of the floc solids detected a level of 8.24 parts per trillion." In a press release, DuPont used slightly different words: "A separate sample of the waste solids removed during the ferric chloride manufacturing process detected a level of 8.24 parts per trillion." According to Evers, and our own understanding, "The ferric chloride manufacturing process" refers to the preparation of waste products from the titanium dioxide process for sale as water treatment chemicals. Evers continued: "For many, many years, DuPont sent out the raw ferric chloride to municipalities, including Wilmington and Philadelphia, for treating drinking water." This means that the "waste solids," now admitted to contain the most toxic variety of dioxin, went into drinking water. Evers also claimed that testing at other parts of the DeLisle plant--testing done on behalf of the two thousand people sueing DuPont in Mississippi--found much higher levels of dioxin than DuPont reported today from Edge Moor. DuPont now claims: "The waste solids are safely disposed of in a secure landfill in South Carolina." However, as Green Delaware has reported in the past, the Lee County Landfill in South Carolina is an ordinary garbage dump. Several years ago we spoke to the landfill manager and a South Carolina environmental official, who both told us they did not know DuPont was shipping dioxin to South Carolina. DNREC, for it's part, told us the waste shipments were "unregulated" and only obtained a "waste profile" from DuPont when Green Delaware asked for one. DuPont representative Leonard Fasullo told us at the time that DuPont had advised the waste hauler to take special precautions in handling the material. We asked for a copy of the precautions but all we ever received was a packet of marketing material from the waste hauler (Allied Waste). The DuPont letter to employees, and the press release, are very artfully worded to give the impression that good news is being reported. Will the press regurgitate this without investigation? We don't know, but DuPont often gets its way with the media and we haven't so far heard from any reporters. James Bryant, retired industry expert, noted that Standard Chlorine, another Delaware -2,3,7,8 emitter, used similar tactics to obscure the bad news. Green Delaware doubts very much that a true picture of the contamination at Edge Moor will ever emerge without testing that is truly independent of DuPont. DNREC, seeking to let DuPont leave the notorious "dioxin pile" on the banks of the Delaware River, is promoting an "independent study," paid for by DuPont and with no public involvement, of said pile. We believe the "study" is rigged to support leaving the pile where it is. For details of this see www.greendel.org. Representative Diana McWilliams, Senator Harris McDowell, and Senator Margaret Rose Henry, state legislators representing the area, have sided with DuPont in various aspects of the DuPont Edge Moor the dioxin controversies. (Both McDowell and McWilliams are running for reelection this Fall.) In spite of this, McWilliams was endorsed for reelection by the so-called "Progressive Democrats for Delaware." McWilliams has an opponent (Mike Dore) as does McDowell (Charles Potter). EPA moves to gut TRI program OMB Watch reported in October, 2005: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3117/1/241?TopicID=1 The EPA has proposed three changes, each of which would dramatically cut information available to the public on toxic pollution. The agency is proposing to: o Move from the current annual reporting requirement to every other year reporting for all facilities, eliminating half of all TRI data; o Allow companies to release ten times as much pollution before being required to report the details of how much toxic pollution was produced and where it went; o Permit facilities to withhold information on low-level production of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), including lead and mercury, which are dangerous even in very small quantities because they are toxic, persist in the environment, and build up in people's bodies. These proposals are part of EPA efforts to reduce the amount of paperwork companies must file. In seeking to reduce the reporting burden on industry, however, EPA has been aggressively pursuing major changes to the TRI program with little consideration of the vital information communities will lose under these changes. Many public interest groups have asserted that the TRI program does not impose any excessive or unnecessary burden on companies. DuPont, of course, is always involved in these Bush administration schemes to reduce scrutiny over the chemical industry. Wonder why....? What have Biden, Carper, and Castle done to fight this? Green Delaware is a community based organization working on environment and public health issues. We try to provide information you can use. Please use it. Do you want to continue receiving information from Green Delaware? Please consider contributing or volunteering. Reach us at 302.834.3466, greendel@no.address, www.greendel.org , Box 69, Port Penn, DE, USA, 19731-0069 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GreenYes" group. To post to this group, send email to GreenYes@no.address To unsubscribe from this group, send email to GreenYes-unsubscribe@no.address For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/GreenYes -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- |
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